Sporting Events, Emotional Cues, and Crime: Spatial and Temporal Evidence from Brazilian Soccer Games

Abstract

Utilizing a novel dataset of police reports that provides granular street- and vehicle-level information on vehicle thefts and robberies in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, we explore the impact of soccer games and their outcomes on crime and study its spatial heterogeneity. Estimates from a regression discontinuity design suggest that crime increases immediately after home games in streets that are within a tight radius from the stadiums. The effect is driven by vehicle thefts with popular car models being more likely to be targeted and is particularly salient after upset losses and derby games.

Keywords: sporting events, emotional cues, crime, spatial distribution

JEL Classification: D91, R12, Z2,